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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Of course,
every soccer player, certainly if he had reached a certain age, was willing to
earn some dollars in the North American Soccer League (NASL) And so the league was
cramped with foreign players. Some of the best (Pelé, Johan Cruijff, Franz
Beckenbauer and George Best), and a lot with far less claim to fame. Fifty
years earlier in the American Soccer League, foreign players also were very keen on
playing in the United States and earn a few dollars.

With the
start of the American Soccer League in 1921, the United States had one of the
first professional leagues in the world. England and Scotland were way
ahead, Austria (1924), Czechoslovakia (1925) and Hungary (1926) came
later. Of course, a professional league isn’t a quality league overnight. The
best thing to do, to increase the level of play, was getting players from
abroad to compete in the league, so that Americans could learn from them.

This
article takes a countrywise approach, naming lots of foreign players that were
responsible for the first heyday of American soccer. This first part covers
players from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, England and Germany. In the second
part players from Hungaria, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Republic
of Ireland, Scotland and Sweden will be covered.

Austria

Hakoah Vienna in 1925

Johann Tandler

During the
roaring twenties, Austrian soccer was among the best in Europe. One of the best
teams in their league was SC Hakoah Vienna. It was a Jewish club for Jewish
soccer players, who were not allowed to play for other soccer clubs.
Anti-Semitism was already rising in central Europe in those days. Still, Hakoah Vienna managed to take the league title
in 1925. One year later, they travelled to the New York area to play some
friendly matches. They only lost once in seven matches. The players were
pleasantly surprised by the lack of anti-Semitism during their tour and by the
high wages, so nine players decided to stay in the States and play in the
American Soccer League. In total even a few more travelled to the States from
Austria, below I’ve collected some data on most of them. Most of the Austrian
(and Hungarian) players went playing for New York Giants or Brooklyn Wanders, a
few years later they nearly all played for their own club: Hakoah
All-Stars. Although strong teams, neither of them ever won the league.
Best performance is Hakoah All-Stars winning the National Challenge Cup in
1929, with Leo Drucker, Moritz Hausler,
Max Grünwald and Siegfried Wortmann in the line-up.

Player

Club(s) in ASL

ASL Performance

Achievements in Europe

Moritz Hausler

New York Giants, Hakoah All-Stars

178 matches (57 goals)

Caps: 7 (2 goals)

Austrian champion with
Hakoah in 1925

Viktor Hierländer

New York Giants

21 matches (10 goals)

Caps: 5 (3 goals)

Austrian champion with FAC in 1918, with
Amateure Vienna in 1924 and 1926.

Leo Drucker

Brooklyn Wanderers, Hakoah All-Stars

136 matches (0 goals)

Caps: 1 (0 goals)

Played also in France, Italy and Malta

Max Grünwald

New York Giants, Hakoah All-Stars

161 matches (72 goals)

Caps: 1 (2 goals)

Siegfried Wortmann

NewYork Nationals, Hakoah All-Stars

122 matches (40 goals)

Caps: 1 (1 goal)

Austrian champion with First Vienna in 1933

Max Gold

NewYork Giants, Hakoah All-Stars

46 ( 0 goals)

Caps: 2 (0 goals)

Johann Tandler

New York Giants

60 matches (1 goal)

Caps: 18 (3 goals)

Austrian champion with Amateure 1924 and 1926

Other
Austrian players in the ASL include Rudy Kuntner, Josef Schoenfeld and Gustav
Pollak.

Czechoslovakia

Frantisek Szedlacsek

Although
Czechoslovakia started their own professional league in 1925, still some
players were very keen on playing in the American Soccer League. Six times
international Pavel Mahrer for example, who played for Brooklyn Wanders in the
1926-27 season (17 matches, no goals). After that he returned home, but came
back to play another 93 matches (4 goals) in four seasons for Hakoah All Stars.
Frantisek or Ferenc Szedlacsek (two caps for Czechoslovakia, one for Hungary) even had a
better reputation when he accompanied Mahrer from DFC Prague to Brooklyn
Wanders. He only managed to play in five matches, scoring three goals. After
that, he went playing for Hungarian side Ferencvaros, winning the league in
1928 and 1932. Third and last Czechoslovakian player in the ASL was Samuel
Schillinger, who was capped four times and also was a member of DFC Prague . He
played for New York Giants, during the 1927-28 season (35 matches, no goals).

Egypt

Just after
the First World War, Egypt had a decent national team, and competed in the
Olympics in 1920. One of the players that stood out was Tewfik Abdallah. To study engineering, he moved to England. But he was picke dup by Derby County, where he made his debut scoring a goal in a win against Manchester City. After this fine start things got mediocre. He moved from club to club, to finally pack his bags and started a new
career in the American Soccer League. His main club in the States was Providence Clamdiggers
(three seasons, 62 matches and 24 goals), but he also had stints with Fall River
Marksmen, Hartford Americans and the New York Nationals.

England

Harold Brittan

While it is impossible to count the
Scottish players that were lured to the American Soccer League, English players were far more reluctant. Of course, one of the reasons being that wages in the
United States were better than in Scotland, but not as good as in England.
Still, it could be fifty players or even more, that eventually did try the American
dream. I’ll just name five that were instrumental.

Harold Brittan should be the first to mention. He was not a
big success with Chelsea, where he played from 1913 until 1915, or even after
the war in the 1919-20 season. As most of family already lived in the United States, he
decided to go there as well. He started playing for Bethlehem Steel, and after a
year changed to Philadelphia Field Club, That was the first season of the American
Soccer league, 1921-22, and Brittan immediately took the title and was crowned top
goalscorer with 27 goals in 17 matches. He kept on scoring goals(his total in
the ASL is 135) and collected another
three titles with Fall River Marksmen in 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1925-26.

Veterans

After
sixteen years in the blue and white of Everton, Sam Chedgzoy also decided to cross the ocean. Chedgzoy was an
English international player (8 caps) and very experienced. Although
already 36 years at the start of his adventure, he still managed to play 164 league-matches during four seasons in the
ASL. Billy Hibbert was even older, as he was born in 1884. He played for
Bury and Newcastle, and earned an English cap in 1910 against Scotland. He
mainly played for Pawtucket Rangers (four matches, one goal for Fall River
Marksmen) and collected sixty ASL-matches, scoring 25 times. Sam Fletcher
wasn’t really a star of the ASL, his best days in US soccer were in the years
before. Fletcher tried his luck in the United States as a twenty-year old, in
1910. He soon starts to play for Bethlehem Steel, in the Allied Ameican
Football League. Fletchers trophyroom is huge. In seven seasons he collects six
titles, four National Challenge Cups and four American Cups. He plays for Erie
AA, Newark Skeeters and Providence Clamdiggers until he is 39 years old, still
collecting 90 ASL-matches.

George Moorhouse

National team

George
Moorhouse failed to make an impression with Leeds United and only made two
appearances for Tranmere Rovers, when he was just twenty years old. That all
changed when he emigrated to Canada in 1923. Only a few months later, he played
three matches for the Brooklyn Wanderers, before being transferred to the New York
Giants. A total of 241 ASL-matches and 46 goals is impressive, but his biggest accomplishment is playing for the national team of the USA, starting with a 6-1
victory over Canada in 1926. He topped that when he was on the pitch on
July 13, 1930 to play Belgium in the World Cup in Montevideo. His three appearances in Uruguay made Moorhouse the first English-born player to compete at the World Cup ever.

Germany

While
Germany is a household name in soccer for decades, that wasn’t the case during
the roaring twenties. With no national league, the standard of play was low as
big clubs had it far too easy winning their matches. So just a few German
players got the chance to play in the ASL. Herman
Bleich wasn’t a regular for his teams and only managed 48 ASL-matches in
five seasons, Max Soehl only played
seven maches for Fall River in 1930. Josef Grünfeld is in fact the only German
with some kind of career in the ASL. As a youngster he was a member of the
Hakoah Vienna team in 1919-20, and again in the 1929-30. Inbetween he played for German
side Stuttgarter Kickers and others. He spent two
years in the ASL playing for Hakoah All-Stars and collecting 63 matches in
which he scored 23 goals.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

After
ending their career great soccer players usually are offered a farewell match. From their club, their former club or from the national team they used to play for. Only once in a while those matches actually become legendary, more
often it gets emotional or even funny. Or it goes terribly wrong. A trip down memory
lane.

Since the
sixties, it has become a tradition that a famous soccer player, surrounded by
his soccer friends, says goodbye to his sporting life by playing a farewell
match. One of the first was Sir Stanley Matthews. On April 28, 1965, he played
a match with ‘Great Britain’ (with Johnny Haynes and Jimmy Greaves in their ranks)
against ‘The rest of Europe’. This team had Lev Jashin in goal, and Alfredo di
Stefano, Josef Masopust and Ferenc Puskas on the pitch. ‘Europe’ won
6-4.

Playing a world
XI or continent XI

That match
was something of a blueprint for matches to follow: everybody is having a
laugh, and there are many goals to celebrate on both sides. On this occasion,
Matthews failed to score a goal himself. Normally, the player involved scores
one or two goals. As did Uwe Seeler in 1972, playing with his club Hamburger SV
against ‘Europe’. Seeler made two goals, but lost 3-7.

Pelé and Maradona

On other occasions, players are likely to organize a match between two
clubs they’d play for. So, on October 1, 1977, nearly 37 year old Pelé,
celebrates his career with a match between Santos and New York Cosmos, playing 45 minutes for each team. New Cosmos won 2-1, Pelé scored one of the
goals for the New Yorkers.

Diego Maradona was even 41 years old, when he played his farewell match, at
his beloved Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, home of Boca Juniors. He played with the national team
of Argentina against a selection of soccer friends. Friends like René Higuita and
Carlos Valderrama, Enzo Francescoli, Hristo Stoichkov, Hugo Gatti and Juan Sebastian
Veron. It got very emotional, nearly everybody was crying and kissing each
other. Maradona converts two penalties, but loses 5-3 to his friends.

Foul play

Kevin
Keegan wasn’t so lucky. In 1984 he played with his club Newcastle United against
his old club Liverpool. Keegan, still in very good shape at 33, scored a
penalty in a match that ended 2-2. Liverpool’s Mark Lawrenson nearly spoiled
all the fun with a ferocious tackle on Keegan, which could have ended his
playing days an hour earlier. When Dennis Irwin was awarded a testimonial match
against Manchester City in 2000 for ten years at Manchester United, City’s
George Weah injured him badly in the 37th minute of the match. Irwin
had to be substituted, and missed out on the first five weeks of the upcoming season.
And when Julian Dick got his testimonial between his club West Ham United and
Atletico Bilbao in the same year, it ended in a fight between 17 of the 22 players,
with especially Paulo di Canio, Nigel Winterburn and Joseba Etxeberria behaving
badly.

It can even
go wrong before a match. In 2008 Jaap
Stam wanted his farewell game (Ajax against an All Star team) to be played in
his hometown Zwolle. Ninety hooligans from Amsterdam terrorized the city centre
of Zwolle before the match. After that, the match itself was interrupted by a
heavy cloudburst. So it really wasn't a happy day for Stam.

Johan Cruijff and Bayern Munich

Perhaps the
worst farewell match of all came down upon Johan Cruijff in November 1978. As the
obvious choice Barcelona wasn’t able to participate in the match, Ajax decided
to ask Bayern Munich instead. For a moment of total stupidity forgetting the old rivalry
between the two clubs. Cruijff and Ajax humiliated Bayern Munich twice in the early seventies
in the European Cup. And the World Cup final in 1974 didn’t help relations
between the Dutch and the Germans either. It all went wrong when the Germans
thought they were mistreated before the game. No Ajax delegation was present at
the Schiphol airport, the hotel looked cheap and during the warm-up not even one Ajax-player came up to the Germans to say hello. And when the verbal abuse roared from
the stands, Bayern Munich had enough. Goalie Sepp Maier did put on a silly hat just before
the kick-off, but after the whistle had blown they were dead serious. At
half-time Bayern had a 2-0 lead, and they scored another six goals in the
second half to end the match 8-0. The goals were scored by Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge (3), Paul Breitner (3) and Gerd Müller (2). Cruijff played a
decent game himself, but most of his teammates - Ajax wasn't a strong team at the time - were a downright disaster. Twenty five
years later Bayern Munich apologized for winning 8-0. And of course Cruijff
played soccer for another six years or so, so it really wasn’t his farewell
match after all.

Raising money
for charity

Claus Lundekvam (Sothampton)

As even
common players since the eighties got to earn loads of money during their career, they more and
more lean towards using their farewell match to raise money for the less
privileged. Niall Quinn supported children’s hospitals in Ireland and India,
Ulf Kirsten donated his money to youth soccer in the Dresden region. Alan
Shearer collected no less than two million for his farewell, and picked
fourteen foundations to send money to. In his second attempt (the money from
his first testimonial was all spent on drinking), Tony Adams donated five
hundred thousand pound to The Sporting Clinic, an organization that helps
athletes to recover from drinking, drugs and gambling.
Norwegian Claus Lundekvam had his farewell match Southampton against Celtic
planned just days after a Bon Jovi gig. Rock fans totally ruined the pitch, and as
Celtic was unable to reschedule, Lundekvam himself paid for a new pitch. No less than twenty thousand supporters visited the match, making up for his investment.

Two hundred
school kids

Joseba Etxeberria, already mentioned earlier, had a new idea. In May 2010 he
invited two hundred school kids to face his Atletic Bilbao. The idea was that
hundred would play the first half, substituted by the other hundred for the
second half. But as Bilbao was leading the match at halftime, it was decided
that all two hundred would play the next 45 minutes. Still, Bilbao managed to
win 5-3.

To end on a
friendly note, Samuel Kuffour from Ghana had his farewell match planned on December 23, 2011. He invited, among others, George Weah, Lothar Matthäus,
Daniel Amokachi, Andy Cole and Jay-Jay Okocha to this game, which took place in Kumasi. The game even got two
former presidents from Ghana burying the hatchet. JJ Rawlings and John Agyekum
Kuffour had been on each other’s throath for a while, but ended their fight on
that day. The match ended 6-5 and of course Sammy Kuffour was allowed to score
from the penalty spot.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Some of the greatest soccer players in the world have brothers who play soccer
too. Sometimes both are extraordinary players, like Bobby and Jack Charlton, Michael
and Brian Laudrup, Socrates and Rai or Frank and Ronald de Boer. But it’s a
different story involving the brothers of Roberto Baggio, Eric Cantona, Zico, Diego
Maradona, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uwe Seeler. They certainly
pulled the short straw.

Eddy
Baggio (Italy, 13-08-1973)

Eddy Baggio

Seven years older brother: Roberto Baggio
(three World Cups, 56 caps with 27 goals)His father named him
Eddy after the famous Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx, but of course he wante to play soccer. Already at a very young age
he was considered a big talent, just like his brother Roberto. At 16 years old
he played in the youth team of Fiorentina. After that, Eddy had a string of
mediocre clubteams, trying to get his big break. But all his scoring for
clubs like Ancona or Ascoli never was convincing enough for top clubs to contract him. Still, mainly because of his famous last name, clubs like Tottenham
Hotspur and Arsenal were mentioned, but they never made an offer. So Eddy
Baggio spent his soccer days playing for Catania, Salernitana, Vicenza, Spezia,
Pisa, Portogruarosummaga and Sangiovannese.

By the way,
Dino Baggio isn’t related to Eddy and Roberto.

Joël
Cantona (France, 28-10-1967)

One year older brother: Eric Cantona (45 caps
with 20 goals), cult hero at Manchester United.
There’s not much to say about the soccer player Joël Cantona. He was a defender
and had far less talent than his brother. He also was less controversial than
Eric was – but then again, who isn’t? Played most of his career at Olympique
Marseille, but was never an automatic choice for the starting eleven. At Stade
Rennes and Angers he performed a bit better. Joël also spent one year in Hungary,
with Ujpest Dosza. After his professional career, Joël went on to play beach
soccer. Together with his brother and some friends from Marseille, they
represented France in international beach soccer tournaments. Once in a while,
he also likes to act. Joël has played in a few movies, most of the times with
Eric. In the movie Astérix et Obélix:
Mission Cleopatra and Cleopatra(2002)
he played a Roman centurion.

Eduardo
Antunes Coimbra ‘Edu’ (Brazil, 5-2-1947)

If Edu
didn’t have a brother Zico, he would go down in history as a very talented
number 10. Unfortunately, Brazil in those days had Pelé, Roberto Rivelino and
Paulo Cesar Lima for that position. Still, Edu collected three caps for Brazil
in 1967. For his club America he is still the second best goal scorer of all
time. After his playing career, he took up coaching. He even coached the
national team of Brazil for three matches in 1984, and top clubs like Vasco da
Gama, Botafogo and Fluminense. When Zico played in Japan, Edu took up coaching
in the same country. In the last ten years he travels the world (Turkey,
Uzbekistan, Russia, Greece, Iraq) as an assistent coach, always with Zico as the
head coach.

Raul
‘Lalo’ Maradona (Argentina, 29-11-1966)

Raul 'Lalo' Maradona

Six years older brother: Diego Maradona (four
World Cups, World Champion 1986, 91 caps with 34 goals)
For a little while, Lalo Maradona was a decent soccer player at Boca Juniors. But
soon his career went down the hill. A few years later he turned up in Canada,
playing indoor soccer. At that level, Lalo was king. Although he’s only Diego’s
brother, he lived the life of a celebrity. Olympic athlete Ben Johnson is his
friend, and he also coached the soccer playing son of Libyan dictator Mouammar
Kadhafi. In 2005, Lalo appeared in the Argentinian version of the television
program Big Brother. He also did a very funny commercial for newspaper Clarin in
which he played a really terrible soccer player who even gets substituted for a
dog.

Hugo Maradona

Hugo
Maradona (Argentina, 9-5-1969)

Nine years older brother: Diego MaradonaHugo, nicknamed ‘El
Turco’ because of his dark appearance, was a very promising young player until
the age of twenty. He tried his luck in different European countries (Italy,
Spain, Austria) and finally settled in Japan. In Asia he had his best seasons,
leading both Fukuoka Bolux and Consadole Sapporo to the title of the second
division, while scoring lots of goals. Playing in the J-League, that role was
too much to ask for. Thirty years old, Hugo ended his career at Almirante
Brown, in the second division of his home country.

The Pfaff
family (Belgium)

The famous Jean-Marie Pfaff had eleven brothers and sisters, their parents
being travelling carpet dealers. No less than three of Jean-Marie’s brothers
also played soccer at the highest level in Belgium. The first one was
Jean-Baptist (born 1944). With his club Beveren he climbed from the third
division to the highest level in two seasons. That first year at the top wasn’t
a big success: Jean-Baptist only played eight matches and ended his career one
year later, just 25 years old. After him, Antoine took over. Antoine was born
in 1952 and played for Beveren from 1970 until 1980, with the exception of a
short period at St. Niklaas. He managed to collect 99 matches at the highest
level with Beveren. The youngest brother was Danny (born 1958). He was a good
defender and enjoyed some great successes at Beveren. He won the Belgian cup in
1983 and was crowned champion in 1984. Jean-Marie, who won the title with
Beveren in 1979, had already left for Bayern Munich in those years. In 1985,
Danny was voted Player of the Year at Beveren.

Michael
Rummenigge (West Germany, 3-2-1964)

Michael Rummenigge

Eight years older brother: Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge (three World Cups, two times runner-up, 95 caps with 45 goals).
After a flying start as a youngster (already a German international at 19 years
old), Michael seemed unable to cope with expectations at his club Bayern
Munich. It wasn’t until his mid twenties, at Borussia Dortmund, that he snapped
out of it. In Dortmund he became the crowd’s favorite as a hard working
midfielder with a great mentality. An adventure in Japan wasn’t successful and
a major injury forced him to quit the game at the age of thirty. After that
Michale became a businessman and, among other businesses founded the
Fussballschule Michael Rummenigge.

Dieter
Seeler (West Germany, 15-12-1931)

Dieter Seeler

Five years younger brother: Uwe Seeler (four
World Cups, one time runner-up, 72 caps with 43 goals)
If you look at the soccer career of Dieter Seeler it’s fair to say that he was
terribly unlucky. After years of good performances for his club Hamburger SV,
he was about to make his debut for the German
national team against Yugoslavia late 1959, when he broke his arm. He never got
a second chance. He did manage to win the German title as captain of Hamburger
SV in 1960, and also won the Cup in 1963. In between, HSV played the semi-final
of the European Cup 1961, against Barcelona. After the first match, Dieter
broke his shin in an Oberliga-match three days later, thereby missing the
second match, and the play-off match. With Dieter, HSV would have won, Uwe
always said. Dieter passed away in 1979, only 47 years old.